English

Summer 1

Journey by Aaron Becker

Journey by Aaron Becker is a wordless picture book that tells a magical story entirely through illustrations. It follows a lonely young girl who, bored and ignored by her busy family, draws a door on her bedroom wall with a red crayon. When she opens it, she steps into a vibrant, fantastical world.

Using the same crayon, she creates objects—a boat, a hot air balloon—to travel through beautiful landscapes, including forests, waterways, and grand cities. Along the way, she encounters a purple bird that becomes both a guide and a symbol of freedom. However, the bird is captured by a mysterious emperor, prompting the girl to bravely enter his palace.

Inside, she uses her creativity and quick thinking to outsmart the emperor and rescue the bird. Together, they escape, and the bird leads her to another child who also has a magical crayon. The story ends with the girl returning home, no longer alone, suggesting the beginning of a new friendship.

The book highlights imagination, courage, and the power of creativity without using any words.

Our Writing Outcome: To write an adventure story based on Journey

Mastery Keys are the key skills and learning objectives children work towards in our Pathways to Write scheme. They outline the specific writing skills—such as grammar, vocabulary, structure and creativity—that pupils need to master in each unit. The Mastery Keys listed below show the exact skills your child will be developing and help you understand what they are working towards in their writing. 

Mastery Keys: 

• Use the present perfect form of verbs
• Use prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs to express time, place and cause
• Group related ideas into paragraphs
• Use a or an accordingly

Our class read is: 

The World’s Worst Teachers by David Walliams

The World’s Worst Teachers by David Walliams is a hilarious and wildly imaginative collection of short stories about the most outrageous teachers ever to stand at the front of a classroom. Each chapter introduces a different “worst” teacher, whose behavior ranges from strange and unfair to downright terrifying.

Among them are characters like a headteacher obsessed with rules and punishments, a science teacher who turns lessons into dangerous experiments, and instructors who care more about their own interests than their students’ education. Walliams exaggerates their flaws to ridiculous extremes, creating larger-than-life personalities that are both awful and funny. The stories often show how these teachers misuse their power, embarrass students, or create chaos in school.

Despite the exaggerated comedy, the book carries an underlying message about fairness, kindness, and the importance of good teaching. The students in the stories often find clever or brave ways to stand up for themselves, and in many cases, the terrible teachers eventually face consequences for their behavior.

Filled with silly humor, outrageous situations, and playful illustrations, The World’s Worst Teachers entertains readers while celebrating the idea that truly great teachers are caring, supportive, and inspiring.